The ORACLE Italian Initiative for Extracting Oxygen on the Moon

THE ORACLE ITALIAN INITIATIVE FOR EXTRACTING OXYGEN ON THE MOON Francesco Latini1, Simone Pirrotta1, Raffaele Mugnuolo1, Michèle Lavagna2, Alice Dottori2 and Ivan Troisi2 1Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, via del Politecnico, 00133, Roma, Italy (francesco[email protected], simone.pirro[email protected], raffaele.mugnu[email protected]) 2Politecnico di Milano, Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, via la Masa 34, 20156, Milano, Italy ([email protected], [email protected], ivan[email protected]) The current effort of international space agencies and private industries is mainly directed towards the exploration of the Moon, as described in the Global Exploration Roadmap 2024 elaborated by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) [1]. The Artemis I launch in 2022 marked the beginning of a new exploration period, during which many space agencies (e.g. ISRO, JAXA) and private companies (e.g. those selected under the CLPS call) have been developing their platforms to provide launch and transfer services opportunities to collect data and explore the lunar surface. In this rapidly evolving frame, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) is willing to contribute by demonstrating one of the key technologies for future human exploration and settlement on the Moon, i.e. possibility to extract oxygen from the lunar regolith. This ISRU capability is fundamental for future colonies living on the lunar surface, because it would allow them to be independent from Earth supplies or, from another point of view, it would allow to save that mass for each launch and bring other technologies and scientific experiments [2]. For these reasons, ASI started the development of ORACLE (Oxygen Retrieval Asset by Carbothermal Reduction in Lunar Environment), to demonstrate that a plant based on carbothermal reduction process is capable of extracting oxygen from lunar regolith while being agnostic to the landing site. The phases A/B1 have been performing in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano (PoliMi), that first demonstrated the feasibility of this process in its laboratories [3]. The industrial partner will then be involved in the phases B2/C/D for the development of the flight unit, with an estimated readiness for launch in 2028 [4]. This time frame is coherent with the growing number of launch and transfer service opportunities towards the lunar surface, also from private providers, allowing the selection of the most suitable one. ORACLE’s configuration will be developed following three main key drivers: 1. Flexibility: to guarantee that the preliminary design will accommodate possible changes due to the current uncertainty of the launch and transfer provider. 2. Modularity: to guarantee that some subsystems could be added/removed, if necessary, without having deep impact on the design. 3. Scalability: to guarantee compliance with the volume/mass/power constraints dictated by the launch and transfer provider. The result is an incremental configuration, as shown in Figure 1, where: - BASELINE: indicates the configuration including the carbothermal reactor, whose TRL is 4, producing carbon oxides. - FULL: indicates the configuration including the methanator and condenser, producing liquid water. - EXTENDED: indicates the configuration with the Regolith Loading Mechanism, in case it is not present onboard the platform because it is crucial to pour regolith into the reactor to perform the demonstration. Figure 1 – ORACLE possible configurations The preliminary configuration of ORACLE will be consolidated at the end of Phase B2. By then, the Agency plans on have started the discussion regarding the accommodation opportunity to define the interfaces in view of the final design. References: [1] Global Exploration Roadmap 2024, [Online]. Available: Global Exploration Roadmap – the International Space Exploration Coordination Group [2] In-Situ Resource Utilization Gap Assessment Report”, [Online]. Available: https://www.globalspaceexploration.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ISECG-ISRU-Technology-GapAssessment-Report-Apr-2021.pdf [3] Prinetto, J. et al., Terrestrial demonstrator for a low-temperature carbothermal reduction process on lunar regolith simulant: design and AIV activities, Planet. Space Sci. 225 (2023) [4] Latini F., The ORACLE ISRU demonstrator payload for oxygen extraction on the Moon, IAC (2023)